The game
How combat works
Every unit is powerful in the right battle. Combat is built on readable strengths and weaknesses, positioning, information, and timing — decisions, not dice.
Counters are conditional, not automatic
Units counter each other through readable relationships — but every counter is a statement about a specific engagement, and landing it is a skill. Spears beat the cavalry that charges them, not the cavalry that ignores them and hits your workers. These are the anchor matchups:
| This… | counters… | when |
|---|---|---|
| Spearmen | Cavalry | Braced infantry is exactly what a charge doesn’t want. Works when the cavalry engages them — not when it rides around. |
| Cavalry | Archers | Speed closes the distance ranged units depend on. A melee screen turns this off. |
| Archers | Light infantry | Massed volleys versus unarmored targets is arithmetic — at range, over time. |
| Ballistae | Dragons | One of the few early answers to large flying threats. Position them where the dragon wants to be. |
| Missiles | Aircraft | Defended airspace is where air forces become wreckage. Coverage maps decide the air war. |
| EMP effects | Drones | The information war has its own counters — blinding sensors beats dodging strikes. |
| Heavy tanks | Lighter vehicles | Weight class matters in the machine ages. Pick armor fights down-weight. |
Presented as strategic concepts — live balance can tune the strength of any matchup.
Read the battlefield
Enemy units and buildings are visible across the map. Read their composition, watch their movement, and position your counters before contact. Full guide:Reading the battlefield.
Positioning and formations
Most fights are decided before contact: damage dealers behind a screen, counters placed in the enemy's likely lanes, chokepoints chosen in advance. Formations exist to make that discipline repeatable — a line that holds, a wedge that breaks through, a spread that blunts area damage. Fighting well in a real room's geometry is its own craft.
Protecting what hurts
Archers, siege engines, artillery, and casters win fights and lose encounters — their design assumes something stands between them and the enemy. The fastest combat improvement available to any player: treat your damage dealers like a resource the enemy is actively spending theirs to reach.
Retreat, reinforce, re-engage
An intact army is a threat; a brave one is a refund for your opponent. Combat rewards reading a fight before taking it, retreating from losing exchanges, healing what survived, and choosing the next engagement on your terms. Base defense follows the same logic — walls and towers buy time, and the army is the answer they're buying it for.
Across the ages
The vocabulary changes every era — the triangle of spears, cavalry, and archers becomes armor, air, and air defense — but the grammar never does. Learn the reasoning once and the whole timeline speaks it. Start withCombined arms explained andHow counters actually work.
Your battlefield is closer than you think.
Join the playtest list and be there when the first battles begin.
In development for iPhone · Android planned